Onslow hospital opens care center

Licensed Practical Nurse Maria Viramontes works beside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at the Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center recently. High air pressure inside the chamber moves oxygen into the body.

John Althouse / The Daily News

By MATTHEW ADKINS Daily News Staff

Published: Monday, November 25, 2013 at 12:00 PM.

Patients with chronic illness and severe wounds now can receive local, specialized care through Onslow Memorial Hospital’s new Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center.

An aging population and an increasing number of people with diabetes and vascular disease have caused doctors to focus on helping this quickly growing demographic with chronic, non-healing wounds. Patients can also attend the new center to receive bio-engineered skin grafting and treatments for a variety of ulcers, radiation damage, infection control and a host of other similar afflictions.

To assist the healing process, additional therapies such as the application of cell growth proteins, living skin equivalents and hyperbaric oxygen therapy are conjunctively used with regular treatments.

Office coordinator Whitney Burton explains the center’s main goal is to provide advanced wound care and therapy for repeat patients.

“Most of our patients have had their wounds for six months or longer,” Burton said. “Some of them have had chronic problems for 10 to 15 years. The majority are referred from their primary caregiver because it is out of their scope of practice to treat the wound, whereas we have the dressings, medications, skin substitutes and everything else here in our facility that allows us to further their healing progress.”

Although the center’s doors officially opened much earlier this year, on May 16, an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony was held Nov. 6 in partnership with the Onslow County Chamber of Commerce.

Patients with chronic illness and severe wounds now can receive local, specialized care through Onslow Memorial Hospital’s new Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center.

An aging population and an increasing number of people with diabetes and vascular disease have caused doctors to focus on helping this quickly growing demographic with chronic, non-healing wounds. Patients can also attend the new center to receive bio-engineered skin grafting and treatments for a variety of ulcers, radiation damage, infection control and a host of other similar afflictions.

To assist the healing process, additional therapies such as the application of cell growth proteins, living skin equivalents and hyperbaric oxygen therapy are conjunctively used with regular treatments.

Office coordinator Whitney Burton explains the center’s main goal is to provide advanced wound care and therapy for repeat patients.

“Most of our patients have had their wounds for six months or longer,” Burton said. “Some of them have had chronic problems for 10 to 15 years. The majority are referred from their primary caregiver because it is out of their scope of practice to treat the wound, whereas we have the dressings, medications, skin substitutes and everything else here in our facility that allows us to further their healing progress.”

Although the center’s doors officially opened much earlier this year, on May 16, an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony was held Nov. 6 in partnership with the Onslow County Chamber of Commerce.

“Our open house last week was a huge success,” assistant Kelly Richards said. “A lot of our vendors and skin substitute providers brought in food and set up tables so patients and employees from the hospital could come in and see what we do. It was a nice event.”

The Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center joins a small group of hyperbaric facility providers in Eastern N.C., with the next two closest being an outpatient medical facility in Morehead City and an independent hyperbaric clinic in Kinston.

“We have patients that drive an hour and half every day to come and get in the pressurized oxygen chambers, so that’s been something that’s really benefited the area,” Burton said. “We have two chambers right now, and there has already been discussion to get more as we continue to grow.”

According to Richards, the key to the center’s success so far has been the quality reputation of the center’s doctors and the staff’s willingness to intimately connect with their patients.

“I always think about my parent or grandparent and how I wouldn’t want them to be judged for their body or wound type,” Richards said. “When we see a patient in the hospital, we send flowers or go visit because it’s all about going above and beyond for them. Our patients may have seen 10 different doctors already for their wounds, so when they come here we want them to know we really care and are really here for them to heal.”

For more information on the center, visit onslow.org/woundcare or call 910-577-4977.